Wandering Fla. Gator Cozies Up to a Tampa Suburban Doorstep

TAMPA, Fla. – Florida alligators are known to roam in springtime when they search for mates, but a Tampa woman was mystified to find one parked on her doorstep.

Belinda Donaldson got a call Thursday morning from a neighbor who warned her to stay inside because an 11-foot alligator was lounging on her front stoop. She looked out the window and there it was, just outside her front door.

Donaldson says 'gators sometimes wander away from one of the many lakes in her suburban neighborhood of tidy lawns and neat 1-story homes, just west of Tampa, but she'd never seen one that big.

A trapper struggled for an hour to bind its jaws with a loop of rope on the end of a stick before getting the 400- to 500-pound reptile tied up and hauling it away in a truck.